Hi there,
i got a new kindle Paperwhite today. It had a charge when I opened it, but I decided to give a full charge before playing with it. I have it hooked to my wall charger from my other kindle. Does the orange light turn green when fully charged like the kindle keyboard? How long should I charge it before I use it? Thanks! I am impatient but want to maximize battery life lol!

pidgeon92

12-28-2012, 06:07 PM

Yes, the orange light will turn green. You do not need to give it a full charge out of the box. I've had several Kindles, and never bothered charging them when they arrived. I haven't found any degradation in battery life.

monkeygirl351

12-28-2012, 06:22 PM

Ahh thanks! I was just wondering as it has been on the charger for about 2 and a half hours and the light is still orange. Seems to take longer than my kindle keyboard or I am just eager to play with it lol. At least from what I can tell, the screen seems even and no color blobs that I can see. Now to get sideloaded books on there with proper covers and no personal doc tags.

pidgeon92

12-28-2012, 06:28 PM

According to the manual:

Charging should take less than four hours using
a Kindle AC adapter. Charging using 3rd party adapters or via USB should take less than four hours, but may take longer depending on the capability of the hardware.

I just plugged mine in about 2 hours ago (the battery icon showed it to be very low), and it's still orange. I think the manual is a bit overly optimistic about the charging time.

DuckieTigger

12-28-2012, 06:46 PM

According to the manual:

I just plugged mine in about 2 hours ago (the battery icon showed it to be very low), and it's still orange. I think the manual is a bit overly optimistic about the charging time.

Just plug it in while you sleep. You can't "overcharge" your PW. It is nice that you can still read while it is charging. :)

ProDigit

12-29-2012, 07:01 AM

Yeah, the battery usage is so low, that you don't need to fully charge them.
Just give them 'some' charge.
If the device allows you, just use it while it's charging!

jeromedevine

12-29-2012, 07:43 AM

Does the Kindle Paperwhite consume much battery charge because of the screen frontlight always on when reading?

For example after a 1 hour reading session, how much battery charge is depleted? Say 20%?

DuckieTigger

12-29-2012, 09:21 AM

Does the Kindle Paperwhite consume much battery charge because of the screen frontlight always on when reading?

For example after a 1 hour reading session, how much battery charge is depleted? Say 20%?

Don't think of the Paperwhite in terms of a backlit tablet. It uses alot less energy than that. If you were to remove all the color filters, both polarization filters and the lcd layer itself (the one that twists the direction of the light), you would have a nice floodlight with a tablet.

As to individual usage in % for one hour reading, that is impossible to say. It depends on your reading speed, the size of the font used, and also if you got wifi on or not. The wifi/3g radio uses energy all by itself even if no traffic occurs. The leds itself use the same amount of power no matter what is on the display (if left at the same level). The screen itself uses no power until a page is turned. While it is changing it uses a lot of power. That is why the more often you change a page on e-ink, the faster the battery drains. Thus impossible to say how many %. You should however expect around 13 hours of reading with light at 24 up to over 40 hours with light at low setting. That is based on others posting on battery time. But remember the way you read influences that.

pidgeon92

12-29-2012, 02:33 PM

I would estimate that I get a good 20 hours of reading before I recharge my PW. I tend to recharge it when it gets to 20-30%.

ProDigit

12-29-2012, 09:35 PM

Those numbers totally suck!
So how does Amazon get the 8 weeks of battery life then?
In stand by?

DuckieTigger

12-29-2012, 09:45 PM

Those numbers totally suck!
So how does Amazon get the 8 weeks of battery life then?
In stand by?

Read the fine print. They are not hiding the fact. They say based on 30 minutes reading per day with wifi turned off and led light at setting 10. Translate - 28 hours of reading time stretched over 8 weeks. But that in itself says something very good for the Kindle. It means that they virtually use no energy while in sleep mode. It will be hard to find a lot of competitors that don't drain the battery by itself (even more so while in sleep mode) for 2 months.

ProDigit

12-29-2012, 10:35 PM

You don't know if those hours already don't have the self-drainage included.
My JBC in off can remain full for months in a row.
In standby usually 2 to 3 months.
The Jetbook Mini I have can be for 2 years in standby mode.

DuckieTigger

12-29-2012, 11:00 PM

That is why I specifically said 28 hours stretched over 8 weeks. If I remember right when my Bookeen Oddyssey was still alive it could barely last a week if left in standby. My Galaxy tab 2 10.1 does pretty well in sleep mode - I left it there for a few weeks laying around without touching it, and it still had a good charge - not sure how much it lost though. But then that is android - they possibly go into a no-power sleep mode after so long.

ProDigit

12-29-2012, 11:31 PM

Well, I guess it's normal then.
I was a bit disappointed at my first ebook reader, the Sony PRS-505.

My Sony PRS-505 lasted 1 month in standby, and 1 day in reading mode.
My Jetbook lasted 2-3 months in standby, and 20 hours in reading mode (24 according to ectaco, 20 in real life).
My JBC lasts 2-3 months in standby, and about 20 hours reading.
My Jetbook mini lasts ~2 years in standby, and ~80 hours reading. Too bad it is with regular AA batteries. Rechargeables last way less.
My Aztak reader lasts a LOOOOOOONG time in standby (like forever), and a LOOOOOONG time in reading (like forever 2). I don't remember, but I could read 3 full days on the Aztak reader, and still have plenty of battery life left!

Blossom

12-29-2012, 11:35 PM

Does the PW have a battery is low message like other Kindles?

DuckieTigger

12-29-2012, 11:42 PM

Does the PW have a battery is low message like other Kindles?
I heard rumors about that. Have not seen it myself. Maybe it is a myth ...

ProDigit

12-30-2012, 12:58 AM

When reading large PDF files, I read it does display the message.
Probably because when the CPU is on, voltage drops; and when it's on for a long time (which could be the case with large PDF files that need to be resized on the fly), the system actually believes the battery is empty.